The Nigerian Air Force on Friday said the Israeli security experts, who were brought in to train 450 personnel, were engaged due to the insurgents’ attacks on military bases in the North-East, among other reasons.

The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent, adding that the costs of the training could not yet be obtained.

The Air Force, on Tuesday, had said it commenced the training of 450 carefully selected regiment personnel as Special Forces.

The training, which was organised in three batches at the NAF Regiment Training Centre in Kaduna State, had been said to be handled by FOUR-TROOP, described as an Israeli military training organisation.

Adesanya said on Friday that the training was to fortify the NAF personnel against attacks on military bases in the country, noting that the training would have cost more if the personnel had been sent to Israel.

He said, “Of course, the training given to our personnel by the Israelis will ultimately impact on the war against the Boko Haram insurgents. Do not forget that a part of the challenges we had in the past was the attacks on air force bases in Maiduguri, Borno State. As of that time, our base defence structure was not as strong as it is now.

“The NAF before now was trained to fight a conventional warfare. But the war against the insurgents is an unconventional warfare, also known as an asymmetric warfare. The training being given to the personnel therefore is to make our troops fight an unconventional warfare. It will also enable the air force to be able to protect its bases adequately.

“It is just that the expertise needed is domiciled in Israel. It could have been domiciled in any other country. The hired Israelis are a private organisation. The areas of training are the defence of our critical national assets.”